Racetrack cushion-forming apparatus

ABSTRACT

An apparatus which, pursuant to being pulled along the surface of a horse racetrack, performs a loosening and combing action so as to form a uniform cushion layer of loose earth along the track surface.

1Jnited States Patent Inventor William Wachunas 1,050,774 Strides Farm, Gansevoort, NY. 12831 1,379,033

Appl. No. 865,562 1,701,572 Filed Oct. 13, 1969 1,710,420 Patented Nov. 23,1971 1,833,878 2,314,888

RACETRACK CUSHION-FORMING APPARATUS 3 4709 4 3 Claims, 10 Drawing Figs.

Barnard 172/198 X Matheny 172/198 X Koritz 172/198 X Hoekstra.. 172/198 Adams 172/780 Manning 172/780 Higley 172/780 West et a1. 172/197 Primary Examiner-Robert E. Pulfrey U.S. Cl 172/198, Assign, pellegrino l72/240- 172/395 Attorney-J. Gibson Semmes Int. Cl ..A01b 49/02,

AOlb 63/18 Field of Search 172/133, ABSTRACT: An apparatus which, pursuant to being pulled 195, 198, 197, 675, 780, 784, 785, 620, 240, 669; along the surface of a horse racetrack, performs a loosening 94/45 and combing action so as to form a uniform cushion layer of loose earth along the track surface. References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,041,199 10/1912 Tower 172/198X ,1 w i n A I A r a I I, 2 6 1r 1 2 {f ,5

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PATENTEDuuv 23 I97\ sum 2 OF 5 PATENTEmmv 2 3 I97! SHEET 3 OF 5 INVENTOR Wan/7M Mayan/14s ATTORNEYS PATENTEDunv 23 ISYI 3,621} 921 I sum 5 BF 5 INVENTOR Wu 4 MM Wawu/ws Maw ATTORNEYS RACETRACK CUSHION-FORMING APPARATUS This invention relates to an apparatus for loosening the surface layer of earth on a horse racetrack whereby said layer forms a cushion for absorbing the shock and impact of the horses hooves which come down upon the earth's surface with great force when the horses run at racing speed.

Failure to maintain a sufficiently thick track cushion will often result in lameness and possibly other forms of injury to the horse, while an excessively deep cushion results in the horses hooves sinking too deeply into the ground thereby slowing the horse down and also possibly resulting in injury, such as bowed tendons, a lasting injury.

The aforementioned problems are well known and various procedures are followed for forming and maintaining a proper track cushion. In this regard, it should be noted that a track cushion will not maintain itself but must be continually renovated since the normal tendency of the earth is for it to become compacted, especially as the result of a race having been run thereon. The known cushion-fonning procedures vary with the commercial importance of the track. Those large racetracks which are in the Major League of horse racing spend monumental sums of money on manpower, namely groundkeepers who manicure the track in what is essentially a large-scale manual operation. The smaller tracks, on the other hand, which cannot afford today's labor costs resort to mechanical road-surfacing apparatus of various types in an attempt to meet the problem.

The manual procedure followed by the large, affluent tracks is not only prohibitively costly for the smaller tracks but even as to the large tracks themselves, it does not assure an optimum degree of uniformity in cushion thickness nor does it provide a good control over the resulting depth of the cushion layer. Further, the manual technique does not provide a very good leveling effect upon the track surface. The mechanical approach employed by the smaller tracks, on the other hand, also leaves very much to be desired as to these features.

It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide an apparatus which may be moved along a track surface and simultaneously perform a loosening and distributing operation on the topmost layer of earth so as to produce a uniformly deep loosened layer of earth along the entire extent of the track.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus as aforementioned which also performs a leveling of the track surface as it simultaneously creates a cushion layer of loosened earth.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus as aforementioned which is economical to construct and to operate and which requires a minimum amount of manpower expenditure.

Other objects are those which are inherent in the invention as disclosed herein.

Generally, the objects of the invention are realized through the provision of an apparatus which performs a granulating operation upon the track's surface followed by a combingtype action upon the granulated earth and which also includes means for leveling the high spots and filling in depressions along the track surface.

A detailed description of a preferred embodiment of realization of the invention follows with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGS. 1A and 1B are coextensions of each other showing the apparatus of this invention in side view;

FIGS. 2A and 28 also are coextensions of each other and are top plan views corresponding to FIGS. 1A and 18;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 2A;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along section line 4-4 in Fig. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along section line 5-5 in FIG. 2A;

FIG. 6 is a detail end view of a comb used in the apparatus of this invention;

' FIG. 7 is an isometric enlarged view of a sideplate used in the apparatus of this invention; and,

FIG. 8 illustrates the leveling action of the apparatus.

The apparatus of this invention, designated C in the drawings, may be attached to any motive means such as the tractor T, and preferably by means of a three-point hydraulic hitch P which permits rapid vertical adjustment of the height of the apparatus drawbar b.

The apparatus comprises an open framework 1 made up of frame members interconnected so as to provide a rigid structure, and the drawbar b serves to connect this framework to the three-point hitch P. A pair of road wheels 2 are mounted upon a common axle 3 which is retractable to within the housing 4 so as to shift the support of the apparatus to the track wheels 5, located rearwardly of the road wheels 2. The road wheels 2, when in the phantom line position of FIG. 1A, provide a considerable ground clearance between the ground surface G and the bottom of the frame 1 while the track wheels 5 provide a much smaller ground clearance such that various elements of the apparatus which project downwardly from the bottom of the frame 1 will actually be at a level below the ground surface G. Suitable suspension means 6 are included for supporting the road wheels 2 from the frame 1 and a restraining means such as claims 7 are used to hold the axle 3 and wheels 2 in the retracted position relative to the frame 1. It is, of course, understood that instead of the two sets of wheels 2 and 5, one could be employed for both purposes provided it were made vertically adjustable so as to accommodate the respective circumstances. It is, however, preferable to have road wheels 2 which are positioned as far forewardly as possible since this provides greater maneuverability while transporting the apparatus from one location to another. On the other hand, it is desired to have the track wheels 5 as far rearwardly as possible so as to provide as great a distance between the axis thereof and the axis of the tractor wheels for improved leveling effect.

Housing 4 may be closed on the top and sides so as to form a bench for a rider of the apparatus. A window 8, however, may be provided to attain access to the axle 3.

Proceeding rearwardly from the drawbar b, the apparatus may include a forward ground rest wheel 9 for supporting the forward end of the apparatus while it is disconnected from any pulling means such as tractor T. Further rearwardly, the apparatus includes four transversely extending bars 10 longitudinally spaced apart from one another and rigidly secured to the frame 1, each of said bars having vertically extending teeth 11 rigidly secured thereto along the front and rear sides of each bar. In this regard, it should be noted that the front and rear rows of teeth 11 on each bar are transversely staggered relative to each other and that, further, the teeth on one bar are also staggered relative to those on another bar whereby the overall effect is that said teeth 11 in projection (that is, as viewed from the front end of the apparatus) form a solid wall along substantially the full transverse length of the bars 10, excepting for some clearance between the frame 1 and each of the bar ends.

In other words, every bit of ground surface along the transverse extent of the bars 10 will be contacted by at least one of said teeth 11. The teeth 1 l are symmetrical about the horizontal midplane of the bars whereby the bars 10 may be turned upside down to present the other ends of the teeth to the ground. This would be done when, for example, the lower ends of the teeth break off or wear down so as to require tooth renewal.

Rearwardly of the last tooth bar 10 there are two longitudinally spaced apart combs l2 and 13, the forward one of which is a coarse tooth comb and the rearward of which is a fine tooth comb. The transverse extent of the forward comb 12 together with a pair of solid sideplates 14 which extend forwardly along each side of the frame from the comb 12 up to the penultimate bar 10, form a closed, three-sided spill box. A pair of deflector baffles 15 extend at an inward inclination, as seen in FIG. 2A, from the penultimate bar 10 to the last bar 10 along the inner sides of the respective sideplates 14. The teeth of both combs extend downwardly from the frame 1 to an extent less than the granulating teeth 11. In fact, the tips of the comb teeth 20 preferably only extend downwardly to exactly the level of the ground surface G while the teeth 11 extend through said surface to a certain depth. It results, therefore, that the lowest level of the comb teeth determines the final track surface level.

The respective combs are vertically adjustable on the frame 1 by means of shims 21 which are insertable under the ends of the combs where they rest upon lower frame member 16.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows.

Primarily, the drawbar b will be hitched to the three point hitch P of tractor T, which hitch thereby assumes support of the front end of the apparatus from means 9. The road wheels 2 are then retracted whereby the track wheels 5 rest upon the ground surface G. With wheels 5 resting upon the ground surface and with the lower longitudinal member 16 ofthe frame 1 substantially horizontal, the teeth 11 will extend to about onehalf inch deep into the ground surface while the lower ends of the comb teeth will extend only to ground level.

The apparatus will then be pulled along the track which is to be treated so as to provide a cushion surface and in being so pulled the teeth 11 granulate the entire extent of track surface equal to the width of bars up to a depth of one-half inch. The baffles serve to guide the granulated earth inwardly so that it may be evenly distributed by the last granulating bar 10. The three-sided spill box, on the other hand, serves to accumulate a quantity of granulated earth therein from the high spots along the surface G, this accumulated earth being dragged along within the box and being prevented from spilling outwardly to the sides by the sideplates 14. Any depressions in the surface G are then automatically filled in by the accumulated earth as the spill box passes over them. The sideplates 14 are also vertically adjustable through the use of shims.

It should be here noted that the entire apparatus is supported between two very widely spaced apart points of support namely: the wheels 5 and the hitch P so that very fine adjustments in the granulating depth of teeth 11 and the combing depth ofcombs l2 and 13 can easily be effected by vertical adjustments of hitch P. Further, in this regard, it should be noted that the axes of wheels 5 and of the tractor wheels 17 define two opposite moving points between which leveling of the track surface occurs continuously as the apparatus moves along that surface. The further the axes of these wheels, 5 and 17, are spaced apart from each other, and the further apart are the successive points along the track between which leveling occurs. In other words, the further apart are the wheels 5 and 17, and the flatter is the resulting trackway surface.

As a practical example of a preferred embodiment of apparatus according to this invention, the following dimensional data is submitted.

The distance between the axis of wheels 5 and the connecting means on the front end of drawbar b is about 34 feet and should in any case preferably be at least 20 feet, and the lateral width of the frame, which is substantially the same as the transverse length of bars 10, is about 10 feet. Each row of teeth on the bars 10 comprises 26 teeth so that there are a total of I04 teeth laterally staggered relative to each other.

The track wheels 5 provide a 2-inch clearance between the bottom of frame member 16 and the ground level G while teeth 11 extend downwardly 3 inches from said frame member 16, whereby said teeth penetrate to a depth of 1 inch into the track surface. The comb teeth, on the other hand, extend downwardly from the frame member 16 to only 2 inches, this being the level of the bottom point ofwheels 5.

The coarse comb 12 has a spacing of 3 inches between its respective teeth while the fine comb 13 has a spacing of 1% inches.

The foregoing dimensions are only exemplary and not limitative of the applicability of the invention.

It should be noted, further that the apparatus employs no blades or scrapers following the granulating members; instead, only combs are used.

Various details of the preferred embodiments are more clearly shown in FIGS. 3 to 8. The frame members 16 as well as the bars 10, for example, may comprise hollow square-tubular structural members and the granulating teeth 11 may be removably secured to bars 10 by bolts 23. The sideplate members 14 (FIGS. 5 and 7) may each be made up ofa plurality of C-channel members 24 either welded or otherwise joined together and also having the deflector or bafile element 15 attached thereto. A space 25 is provided in the members 14 (FIG. 7) to fit over the last one ofthe granulating bars 10.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show each of the combs as being made up of two C-channel members 26,27 joined together flange to flange, analogously to the manner shown in FIG. 7, the upper C-channel member 26 being longer than the lower one 27 (FIG. 5) and resting upon the tops of the frame members 16. In fact, a longitudinally extending flat bar 28 is rigidly secured to the opposite ends of each comb channel member 26, said flat bar 28 fitting against the top of the frame member 16 between two spaced-apart mutually facing U-shaped members 29 which are rigidly secured to the top of members 16. The flat bars 28 serve to prevent tilting of the combs about a horizontal axis, that is: the longitudinal axis of the comb, while the U-shaped members 28 serve to hold the combs fixedly positioned relative to the frame 1.

FIG. 8 illustrates the action of the spill box defined by comb 12 and the two sideplates 14. A mound 30 of loose earth accumulates within the spill box as the apparatus moves forwardly along the track, this mound of earth representing high spots of earth previously levelled by the comb 12. As the spill box passes over a depression along the track surface, the earth in mound 30 simply fills into the depression and the comb 12 levels it off to the level ofground G.

The frame 1, granulating bars 10 and teeth 11, the combs l2 and 13 and their related comb teeth, the sideplates 14, etc., are preferably of metal and the respective parts are either welded or bolted together. The coarse comb teeth, for example, may comprise l-inch diameter rods about 4 inches long welded to member 27, 3 inches apart from each other, while the fine comb teeth may comprise one-half inch diameter rods also 4 inches long and welded to the member 27 at l lzll'lChCS apart from each other.

Various details given herein relative to a preferred embodiment of realization are clearly only illustrative and not limitative ofthe applicability of the disclosed inventive concept.

What is claimed is:

l. Tractor-driven earth-working apparatus, alternately mobile for travel and earth working, whereby in earth working to create a substantially flat, cushion layer of granulated earth, supported by a substantially flat earth base for said cushion layer from terrain surfaces of irregular profile, comprising in combination with a tractor:

A. an elongate frame and forward drawbar extension therefor, said frame and extension being hydraulically adjustable relative to earth surface and tractor;

B. first spaced-apart wheel supports at the rearward extremity of the frame, said first spaced-apart wheel supports serving as a fulcrum for the frame, relative to the hitched extension;

C. multiple complemental earth base forming tine sets staggerly spaced disposed in transverse fixed relation to the frame, intermediate of the forward extension and first wheel supports, the tines of which being set for engagement beneath the surface of the earth on which the first spaced-apart wheel supports ride;

D. earth-engaging combs fixed transversely to the said frame, rearwardly to said tine sets and having teeth spaced substantially closer together than said tines, said combs set to extend substantially to the level of the earth's surface, a forward comb comprising a coarser tooth comb relative to a rearward comb; sideplates fixed at opposite ends of said forward combs and extending forwardly therefrom,

box, said second wheel supports being retractable and lockable. relative to the frame for roadway travel during non-earthworking, and for storage during earth working.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one set of earthworking tines are disposed within the confines of the spill box,

said one set of earth-working tines being disposed forward of the cushion-forming combs. 

1. Tractor-driven earth-working apparatus, alternately mobile for travel and earth working, whereby in earth working to create a substantially flat, cushion layer of granulated earth, supported by a substantially flat earth base for said cushion layer from terrain surfaces of irregular profile, comprising in combination with a tractor: A. an elongate frame and forward drawbar extension therefor, said frame and extension being hydraulically adjustable relative to earth surface and tractor; B. first spaced-apart wheel supports at the rearward extremity of the frame, said first spaced-apart wheel supports serving as a fulcrum for the frame, relative to the hitched extension; C. multiple complemental earth base forming tine sets staggerly spaced disposed in transverse fixed relation to the frame, intermediate of the forward extension and first wheel supports, the tines of which being set for engagement beneath the surface of the earth on which the first spaced-apart wheel supports ride; D. earth-engaging combs fixed transversely to the said frame, rearwardly to said tine sets and having teeth spaced substantially closer together than said tines, said combs set to extend substantially to the level of the earth''s surface, a forward comb comprising a coarser tooth comb relative to a rearward comb; sideplates fixed at opposite ends of said forward combs and extending forwardly therefrom, E. baffle means on each of said sideplates at the forward end thereof, said baffle means being inclined transversely inward in a front to rearward directions; and F. said sideplates and said rearward comb defining a spill box whereby to prevent loose granulated dirt from falling outside the apparatus.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein second wheel supports are disposed intermediate said forward extension and rearward wheel supports and rearward of said spill box, said second wheel supports being retractable and lockable, relative to the frame for roadway travel during non-earth-working, and for storage during earth working.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one set of earth-working tines are disposed within the confines of the spill box, said one set of earth-working tines being disposed forward of the cushion-forming combs. 